Prison officer accused of taking photo of gun being held to her head

A young female prison officer has been suspended after reports she took photos while on a hospital escort of a loaded gun being held to her head — and sent them to fellow staff.

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A young female prison officer has been suspended after reports she took photos while on a hospital escort of a loaded gun being held to her head — and sent them to fellow staff.

It is the latest embarrassment for the state’s prisons after a female prison officer and bikini model was charged with allegedly having an “inappropriate relationship” with a prisoner and a male officer has faced court charged with sexually assaulting two inmates at a female jail.

A young female prison officer has been suspended.

NSW Corrective Services today confirmed that a female officer from Shortland Correctional Centre at Cessnock was immediately suspended after allegations of misconduct.

As well as posing with a .38 firearm to her head, she is also alleged to have “face timed” her friends with the inmate in the photograph and managed to get into the Manager of Security’s Office after hours where she “inserted stationary objects inside herself for a challenge”.

“I shook my head when I saw that,” the former governor of one of the state’s toughest jails, John Heffernan, said.

Mr Heffernan, the former boss of Grafton Jail, said the “system is a mess”.

John Heffernan former governor of Grafton Jail.

“It’s no coincidence that these incidents appears to be on the rise. It’s symptomatic of a much larger issue,” Mr Heffernan said.

“The department has effectively shown a lot of experienced staff the door. As you would imagine, many of those staff occupied senior management positions.

“The vacancies created are being filled now by junior staff who are simply not ready to occupy these positions. That is not to say they are not going to be good staff but they are just not ready.

“It’s an absolute mess.”

Furious prison officers took to Mr Heffernan’s Facebook page, The Last Governor, to slam the latest prison officer to be shamed.

“Wtf? How are we letting people like this into this job? Who is responsible for dropping the ball on this one?” one officer posted.

Tara Brooks became the first person charged with a new offence of being in an inappropriate relationship with a prisoner. Picture: Richard Mamando

Another wrote: “I don’t find that sort of behaviour very funny when you have had 4 work colleagues suicide over a 2 year period.”

A spokeswoman for NSW Corrective Services said in a statement: “A correctional officer from Shortland Correctional Centre in Cessnock was immediately suspended in December last year after allegations of misconduct.

Investigations are continuing.

Such alleged behaviour does not reflect upon the vast majority of our staff, who act professionally each day to ensure the safety and security of the community.”

Earlier this month, prison officer Tara Brooks, 33, became the first person charged with a new offence of being in an inappropriate relationship with a prisoner. The prisoner at Parklea Correctional Centre had some of her bikini photographs pinned to the wall of his cell.